Atlantic Unbound Archive

P. J. O'Rourke

Recent articles by P. J. O'Rourke

November 2007

I Sing of Fizzy Fluid Retention

The decline of spinsters? Smoke-free living? Drawing on a vast new statistical compendium, our commentator unearths, examines, and extrapolates the hidden challenges to America.

January/February 2007

Mapping Innovation

To find the next great ideas, follow the tractors, tourists, and drinkers.

January/February 2006

Two Cheers for Hypocrisy

As the Gallup Organization has discovered, the young are another country—and one day it's going to be ours.

November 2005

The Mother Load

"Oh, my God—Southwest to Tampa with a thousand people!" A report on the new Airbus A380, the world's biggest passenger plane.

July/August 2005

Masters of the Hunt

So the British have banned the killing of foxes and other wild mammals with the aid of dogs. Now what? A report from the sponge-wet moors of Barmy Britannia.

May 2005

Freedom, Responsibility … and What?

Social Security reform—an explanation.

April 2005

Incumbent-Protection Acts

Campaign-finance reform—an explanation.

January/February 2005

Continental Divides

The Crescent of Crime, the Spousal Spine, the Divorce Coasts, the Righteous Region, and other sources of national greatness.

January/February 2005

Redheaded Eskimo

The corporate tax bill—an explanation.

December 2004

Pork With a Point

The highway bill—a translation.

December 2004

Hail to the _____

An all-purpose post-election editorial, offered free to news organizations across the United States.

November 2004

Foreign Leaders and Kerry

Do they really like him? Here's what they—or, anyway, people—tell me.

November 2004

A $2.4 Trillion Figure of Speech

The federal budget—an explanation.

October 2004

"To Hell With Lipitor!"

Medicare reform—an explanation.

September 2004

Adult-Male-Elephant Diplomacy

Colin Powell talks about Iraq, the Cold War, his place in the Administration, and chilling "the ambitions of the evil"

August 2, 2004

A Conversation With Colin Powell

Colin Powell and P. J. O'Rourke discuss foreign policy, Volvos, Elvis, and more. The full transcript of an interview from the September 2004 Atlantic

July/August 2004

I Agree With Me

When was the last time a conservative talk show changed a mind?

June 2004

Sulfur Island

Everyone recognizes the image of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima. But what do you know about the place we were actually fighting for?

April 2004

The Enthusiasts

A report from deep in the grass roots.

January/February 2004

Speaking of the Candidates

Our correspondent looks much too closely at the current crop of stump speeches.

December 2003

The Backside of War

How I saved Iraq's modern art, and other confessions. A noncombatant's diary.

April 2003

The Veterans of Domestic Disorders Memorial

How to remember the not-quite-greatest-generation.

March 2003

The Bill Show

There are selves too big for one person to contain. You cannot call them selfish. There is nothing -ish about such selves. They are the self, as it were, itself.

January/February 2003

The Louse is in the House

A malady that does not speak its name.

December 2002

Third Person Singular

Having an ear bent by Henry Adams, the prototype of the modern thinker.

November 2002

No Apparent Motive

A chilling characteristic of politicians is that they're not in it for the money.

October 2002

Anything Goes

For three decades the author searched fruitlessly for the perfect city. And then he found it.

September 2002

Letter From Egypt

"There is a question," our correspondent writes, "that less-sophisticated Americans ask (and more-sophisticated Americans would like to): Why are people in the Middle East so crazy? Here, at the pyramids, was an answer from the earliest days of civilization: People have always been crazy."

June 2002

The Success of Failure

We owe our economic development, our form of government, and even our physical existence to spectacular flops.

May 2002

The Case for Vote Control

Campaign-finance reform is only a start.

April 2002

How to Stuff a Wild Enron

Everyone blames too little regulation for the Enron mess, but maybe the culprit was too much.

March 2002

Nobel Sentiments

Pious thoughts from wise fools.

February 2002

After the Quagmire

Coping with closure; enduring the New Seriousness.

January 2002

Coping Strategies

When Godzilla gets the willies.

December 2001

Squishier than thou

Demonstrating against reality in London and Washington.

November 2001

Zion's Vital Signs

A journey through modern Israel, where terrorism has been a fact of ordinary life for decades—and where ordinary life defeats terrorism.

November 2001

What Auden Didn't Know

The things that stay in place.

February 2001

Was Clinton Cool?

Talking about my generation. And talking and talking and talking.